It Can't Happen Here

Author: Sinclair Lewis

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General Fields

  • : $28.00 NZD
  • : 9780241310663
  • : Penguin UK
  • : Penguin
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  • : January 2017
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  • : 28.0
  • : December 2016
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  • : books

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  • : Sinclair Lewis
  • : Penguin Modern Classics
  • : Paperback
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  • : English
  • : 813/.52
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Barcode 9780241310663
9780241310663

Description

"The novel that foreshadowed Donald Trump's authoritarian appeal."--Salon   It Can't Happen Here is the only one of Sinclair Lewis's later novels to match the power of Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith. A cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, it is an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America.   Written during the Great Depression, when the country was largely oblivious to Hitler's aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a president who becomes a dictator to save the nation from welfare cheats, sex, crime, and a liberal press.   Called "a message to thinking Americans" by the Springfield Republican when it was published in 1935, It Can't Happen Here is a shockingly prescient novel that remains as fresh and contemporary as today's news.   With an Introduction by Michael Meyer and an Afterword by Gary Scharnhorst

Reviews

You can't read Lewis' novel today without flashes of Trumpian recognition Slate An eerily prescient foreshadowing of current affairs Guardian Eighty years later the novel feels frighteningly contemporary Salon Not only Lewis's most important book but one of the most important books ever produced in the United States New Yorker

Author description

Sinclair Lewis was born in 1885 in Minnesota. He attended Yale University and subsequently worked as a reporter and editor. In 1920, he had a major breakthrough with Main Street (1920), which was followed by Babbitt (1922) and many other successful novels. He won the Nobel Prize in 1930 and in 1935 wrote the bestselling It Can't Happen Here, a cautionary tale about the rise of a fascist president in America. He died in Rome in 1951.